Even-Ifs From If-Onlys: Are the Best Semi-Factual Explanations Found Using Counterfactuals As Guides? (2403.00980v2)
Abstract: Recently, counterfactuals using "if-only" explanations have become very popular in eXplainable AI (XAI), as they describe which changes to feature-inputs of a black-box AI system result in changes to a (usually negative) decision-outcome. Even more recently, semi-factuals using "even-if" explanations have gained more attention. They elucidate the feature-input changes that do not change the decision-outcome of the AI system, with a potential to suggest more beneficial recourses. Some semi-factual methods use counterfactuals to the query-instance to guide semi-factual production (so-called counterfactual-guided methods), whereas others do not (so-called counterfactual-free methods). In this work, we perform comprehensive tests of 8 semi-factual methods on 7 datasets using 5 key metrics, to determine whether counterfactual guidance is necessary to find the best semi-factuals. The results of these tests suggests not, but rather that computing other aspects of the decision space lead to better semi-factual XAI.
- On the robustness of interpretability methods. arXiv preprint arXiv:1806.08049, 2018.
- ”even if…”–diverse semifactual explanations of reject. arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.01898, 2022.
- Even if explanations: Prior work, desiderata & benchmarks for semi-factual xai. In IJCAI-23, pages 6526–6535, 8 2023.
- Jonathan Bennett. A philosophical guide to conditionals. Clarendon Press, 2003.
- Nice: an algorithm for nearest instance counterfactual explanations. Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, pages 1–39, 2023.
- Kleor: A knowledge lite approach to explanation oriented retrieval. Computing and Informatics, 25(2-3):173–193, 2006.
- Multi-objective counterfactual explanations. In International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature, pages 448–469. Springer, 2020.
- Explanation oriented retrieval. In European Conference on Case-Based Reasoning, pages 157–168. Springer, 2004.
- Factual and counterfactual explanations for black box decision making. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 34(6):14–23, 2019.
- Robust counterfactual explanations for neural networks with probabilistic guarantees. arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.11997, 2023.
- To trust or not to trust a classifier. Advances in neural information processing systems, 31, 2018.
- A survey of algorithmic recourse: contrastive explanations and consequential recommendations. ACM Computing Surveys, 55(5):1–29, 2022.
- Algorithmic recourse: from counterfactual explanations to interventions. In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM conference on fairness, accountability, and transparency, pages 353–362, 2021.
- If only we had better counterfactual explanations. In Proceedings of the 30th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-21), 2021.
- Good counterfactuals and where to find them: A case-based technique for generating counterfactuals for explainable ai (xai). In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Case-Based Reasoning (ICCBR-20), pages 163–178. Springer, 2020.
- The utility of “even if” semi-factual explanation to optimize positive outcomes. In NeurIPs-23, 2023.
- On generating plausible counterfactual and semi-factual explanations for deep learning. In Proceedings of the 35th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-21), pages 11575–11585, 2021.
- A rationale-centric framework for human-in-the-loop machine learning. arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.12918, 2022.
- Semifactual ”even if” thinking. Thinking & Reasoning, 8(1):41–67, 2002.
- Alterfactual explanations–the relevance of irrelevance for explaining ai systems. arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.09374, 2022.
- Tim Miller. Explanation in artificial intelligence: Insights from the social sciences. Artificial Intelligence, 267:1–38, 2019.
- Explaining machine learning classifiers through diverse counterfactual explanations. In Proceedings of the Facct-2020, pages 607–617, 2020.
- The best way to instil confidence is by being right. In International Conference on Case-Based Reasoning, pages 368–381. Springer, 2005.
- Gaining insight through case-based explanation. Journal of Intelligent Info Systems, 32:267–295, 2009.
- Natural example-based explainability: a survey. arXiv preprint arXiv:19, 2023.
- ” why should i trust you?” explaining the predictions of any classifier. In Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGKDD-16, pages 1135–1144, 2016.
- Geco: Quality counterfactual explanations in real time. arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.01292, 2021.
- A few good counterfactuals: generating interpretable, plausible and diverse counterfactual explanations. In International Conference on Case-Based Reasoning, pages 18–32. Springer, 2022.
- Actionable recourse in linear classification. In Proceedings of the Facct-19, pages 10–19, 2019.
- Conditional generative models for counterfactual explanations. arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.10123, 2021.
- This changes to that: Combining causal and non-causal explanations to generate disease progression in capsule endoscopy. arXiv preprint arXiv:2212.02506, 2022.
- Counterfactual explanations and algorithmic recourses for machine learning: a review. arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.10596, 2020.
- Counterfactual explanations without opening the black box. Harv. JL & Tech., 31:841, 2017.
- Applying class-to-class siamese networks to explain classifications with supportive and contrastive cases. In Case-Based Reasoning Research and Development: 28th International Conference, ICCBR 2020, Salamanca, Spain, June 8–12, 2020, Proceedings, pages 245–260. Springer, 2020.
- Learning adaptations for case-based classification: A neural network approach. In International Conference on Case-Based Reasoning, pages 279–293. Springer, 2021.
- Interpreting neural networks using flip points. arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.08789, 2019.
- Generating counterfactual images: Towards a c2c-vae approach. In 4th Workshop on XCBR: Case-Based Reasoning for the Explanation of Intelligent Systems, 2022.
- Saugat Aryal (2 papers)
- Mark T. Keane (27 papers)